diff --git a/lib/core/settings.py b/lib/core/settings.py
index ef6247e85..afaab12cb 100644
--- a/lib/core/settings.py
+++ b/lib/core/settings.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ from lib.core.enums import OS
 from thirdparty import six
 
 # sqlmap version (<major>.<minor>.<month>.<monthly commit>)
-VERSION = "1.10.9.20"
+VERSION = "1.10.9.21"
 TYPE = "dev" if VERSION.count('.') > 2 and VERSION.split('.')[-1] != '0' else "stable"
 TYPE_COLORS = {"dev": 33, "stable": 90, "pip": 34}
 VERSION_STRING = "sqlmap/%s#%s" % ('.'.join(VERSION.split('.')[:-1]) if VERSION.count('.') > 2 and VERSION.split('.')[-1] == '0' else VERSION, TYPE)
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/mysql/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/mysql/connector.py
index bfa87d423..2bdc706d0 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/mysql/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/mysql/connector.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
 
         try:
             self.connector = pymysql.connect(host=self.hostname, user=self.user, passwd=self.password, db=self.db, port=self.port, connect_timeout=conf.timeout, use_unicode=True)
-        except (pymysql.OperationalError, pymysql.InternalError, pymysql.ProgrammingError, struct.error) as ex:
+        except (pymysql.OperationalError, pymysql.InternalError, pymysql.ProgrammingError, struct.error, UnicodeEncodeError) as ex:
             raise SqlmapConnectionException(getSafeExString(ex))
 
         self.initCursor()